Adults and SCD

[Guest guest]

Hi!

Yesterday I went to the Health and Medical Issues in Autism

Conference, hosted by Hopewell Associates in Massachusetts. A couple

of weeks ago, someone was asking about adults starting SCD and

whether it was worth it, and I said I would ask at the conference

because I know they have adults in their practice.

Both Pam Ferro and Carol Wester (both nurses) answered the

question. Adults with autism show many of the same improvements that

the children do - if there are bowel issues they improve,

neurological issues improve, etc. There are a couple of drawbacks,

though. There are some people who have a hard time seeing other

people eat different food. It is much easier to keep a child away

from " illegals " if only because of height issues (they're shorter) or

they can't figure out how to open cabinets, etc. There are some who

steal other people's food, and they can be a real challenge to keep

on the diet. Many of their older clients are in group homes, and

they have much luck with those, because the whole house will become

SCD, including the staff (at least while they are there.)

I personally have the problem with a house not fully SCD. 2 out of

7 in the house try to be SCD. I keep falling off the wagon - way too

many temptations. BJ I can control better, but we have found candy

wrappers lying around the house, and some return of behaviors of

his. Oh, well.

Carol also spoke about drugs. They have found that many times

people come in asking for drugs for an adult, but first they work on

diet and supplements, and many do not need the drugs, but there are

some who do. One thing that was stressed through the whole

conference is that SCD is the best foundation to work from. When the

gut heals, many problems are reduced, if not erraticated, and other

therapies - speech, ot, pt, drugs, etc - show much more promise.

If I could, I would put the other 5 people in the house on SCD.

Why? Because I can see they need it, but it's " too hard " and the

food is " yucky " . They are adults. Oh, well.

Sue B